Star Calls for Strong Action Against Crooked Police Caught Taking Payoffs and Allowing Atrocities Against Animals
Cuttack — On behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), actor Anupam Kher has sent a letter to Mr B.B. Mishra expressing his appreciation for the hard work of an Orissa-based anti-corruption bureau. The unit found that each vehicle hauling animals in a severely overcrowded and illegal manner between Orissa and West Bengal pays heavy bribes to the many police stations and transport department officials along the route. When it comes to the transport of cows, buffaloes, goats and sheep, bribery and corruption take place all across India and are the primary factors contributing to the miserable and illegal treatment that the animals are forced to endure.
Anti-corruption bureau agents went undercover by disguising themselves as animal transporters. When police at the Bhandaripokhari station began collecting their bribe, the agents launched an on-the-spot investigation that turned up large sums of money at the station and at the home of the police officer in charge. The cash found at the police station was seized. Searches and raids are continuing, and PETA is urging the governments of Orissa and West Bengal to take strong, tangible steps to shut down the bribery operations and to bring charges against guilty parties.
In Orissa, under cover of darkness, as many as 50 animals are crammed into vehicles designed to hold only 15. On the way to Kolkatta, where the animals are slaughtered for their flesh and skin, the lorries pass 22 police stations, each of which is reportedly paid a bribe to look the other way.
Some transportation department employees have also gotten in on the action by demanding their own payoffs from drivers. The illegal transportation and slaughter of these animals, which have become so profitable as a result of the demand for meat and leather, have created a huge black market. The losers are the Indian people, because the unreported, illegal income is not taxed to pay for government programmes, and, of course, the animals, whose suffering is beyond measure.
‘I hope that the governments of West Bengal and Orissa will take strong action against those who accept bribes, fueling this inexcusable and dreadful abuse,’ adds Anupam Kher in his letter. ‘Anti-corruption bureaus all over India should follow your good example.’
Cows, buffaloes, goats and sheep suffer gouge wounds and broken bones from extreme overcrowding in lorries and are not given so much as a drop of water. Some suffocate.
PETA has met with government officials several times over the last few years, but unfortunately little has been done to resolve the problem. The anti-corruption bureau has the authority to put an end to this cruelty and flouting of the law. PETA is asking everyone to write to Mr Mishra, the chief minister of Orissa, to ensure that the efforts of the anti-corruption bureau continue and that the bribery by animal transporters is punished and put to an end.
Nearly 40 companies with policies against supporting unlawful abuse have informed PETA that they will not agree to use leather obtained from Indian animals, at least until conditions for them in transport improve. PETA’s boycott of Indian leather has signed on some of the biggest leather retailers in the world—including Adidas, Nike, Gucci, Eddie Bauer, L.L. Bean, Timberland, The Gap, Florsheim, Liz Claiborne and many other companies—and, according to The Press Trust of India, has cost the Indian leather industry more than US$40 million in lost contracts.
For more information, please visit our Web site www.PETAIndia.com.
Anupam Kher’s letter to Mr B.B. Mishra follows.
